DRAMA

Absolutely one for the people (like me) who simply have to have every Yes album and associated solo works, but only, I'm afraid, for that reason.

Previous reviewers of the album have, probably rightly, asked us to listen to this without prejudice. Well, I'm sorry, and I have tried and tried, but I find it impossible. Yes can, and have, survived without Wakeman, but without Anderson? No, absolutely not. To me, he is the heart and soul of the band, and it is simply nowhere near the same without him - it would have been better had they called themselves by a different name. I will also never forget the abuse that was heaped upon Horn (the one with the big glasses from Buggles) when I saw the band live on the resultant tour.

Machine Messiah is a very good piece of music, but the rest simply fades into very average, Floydian passages for me, and not even the great musicianship of Howe, White, Squire, and Downes can save it. It is, to me, altogether far too dark and cynical to succeed as a Yes album. I love Pink Floyd, but leave the Floydian cynicism to the masters - I listen to Yes precisely because of Anderson's cheery, hippy, afterlife view of the world.

Regretfully, only one star, because it is only for completionists and is not even particularly important to the history and understanding of the band, given that it was a one album lineup only.